A New York Myth

The Elderly Will Be Taken Care of in Bruno’s Republican Utopia
SCRIE could turn to SCREW if we tenants are not successful in lobbying Albany for ALL rent controls.
By Eugenia E. Shelley

Joseph Bruno, the Republican majority leader of the State Senate, has a strategy for disengaging the elderly, the near-elderly, and others from the fight to keep all the various rent-protection laws. His strategy is phony sweet talk about "taking care of the elderly."

Many people believe him, and thus believe that weakening rent controls won’t affect them. One of my fellow tenant recently sent me a note responding to an article I wrote on lobbying the State Senate to retain all rent protections. He mentioned that after his next lease (which he may not get, if rent protections drop dead June 16), he will have reached age 62. "Thereafter, the landlord will not raise my rent," he wrote.

There is a New York myth that all you have to do is reach the age of 62 and your rent will be frozen at the level you are then paying; that a government agency will pay your landlord the difference between your frozen rent and the rent you would be paying if you had not reached 62. My neighbor apparently believes the myth.

Like many people, he thinks that the only requirement for getting into the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) program is attaining age 62. Not so. The fact is there are two other requirements for the tenant’s eligibility. You must also have an after-tax income of $20,000 or less from all sources, including Social Security, job pension, tax-exempt bonds, and whatever else. Your rent must also be at least one-third of your income. If you meet those requirements, the landlord will indeed be paid the difference, so the landlord can’t lose.

My neighbor will not qualify. Although elderly, I do not qualify, and my income as a former civil servant who retired in 1981 is probably lower than he has in his skilled trade, or will have as a retiree.

During this present serious threat to rent control, rent stabilization, and other rent protections such as SCRIE, Senator Bruno, the man who would bring rent gouging to new heights, speaks tenderly about his intentions toward the elderly. But he never says anything specific, nor does he mention which elderly.

Those who qualify for SCRIE under present law will be lucky to continue to have the eligibility they now have. Unfortunately, those who believe Bruno (whether they are old or young) may fail to fight for rent protections. The Majority Leader’s vague promises are intended to neutralize opposition, with candy-talk of benign intentions. Beware! Bruno, who is paid off handsomely by the landlord lobby, is no Mother Teresa.

At the present time, no one has any way of knowing whether SCRIE will be kept, scrapped, or altered in some way by those landlord-friendly, people-hostile, Bruno-type Republican State Senators. SCRIE is a part of the overall rent-control picture. SCRIE could turn to SCREW if we tenants do not all work together to increase the momentum, to be successful in lobbying Albany for ALL rent controls.